My Wedding Dress...

...25 years on.

I always planned to wear my wedding dress for our 25th anniversary. But I knew I couldn't wear it in it's original form, so it was time for a refashion. The original dress was made by Laura Ashley and is a printed cotton. I really loved it and it seemed a shame for it to be hidden away in a box going yellow.

The plan was to shorten the skirt and change up the sleeve to something more contemporary. I have always been able to fit into my dress and this seemed like an easy refashion. However, after soaking and washing my dress at quite a high temperature to get rid of the yellowing stains, it had shrunk a bit and although I could still get it on. It would not have been comfortable to wear.

So a bigger refashion was needed. I have always loved fitted bodices and full skirts of the 1950's and wanted to keep the scooped neckline of the original dress. I also loved the back of the Gertie Sultry sheath dress. So after carefully taking the skirt apart, I used the B6453 princess seamed bodice and extended the bodice to include the shoulders and have the same scoop neckline. I overlaid the sultry sheath bodice back and found it matched almost exactly with the B6453.
I self lined the bodice and then added a knee length box pleated skirt to finish off the dress. The zip is a lapped zipper.

On our anniversary I styled my dress with a black net underskirt, black and white spotty kitten heel shoes and a beaded balck and white collar necklace. The evening was warm do I didn't need a coat, just a purple shawl to complement what my hubby was wearing.

We enjoyed a beautiful meal at the House of Tides in Newcastle.

I love my refashioned dress, but i'm not sure I have much call for a white dress, so I'm considering dying it. Some experiments are needed to see how the dye reacts to the printed cotton.